“Wymett’s a short and ugly animile. Short on payment of his obligations, and ugly in a fight because you never know who he’s sold to last. Though, at that”--and here the considering pause came in the middle of the statement--“you can be pretty sure that Montrose Clark will have the deciding word.” “Is that the President of the Public Utilities Corporation?” “That’s the man. Know him?” “I’ve reported him at meetings, twice. He did n’t say anything much.” “He never does, in public or for the public. What did you think of him?” “I thought he was a pompous little stuffed shirt,” was the reporter’s irreverent opinion. “He’s pompous enough. But there’s brains behind those piggy eyes of his. We were talking of politics. Well, Montrose Clark _is_ politics. He’s politics, big.” “I would have thought he was finance, and bluff.” “Finance, of course. That is politics. Let me give you a one-minute synopsis of the politics of this State. I told you the Legislature was a sieve. Well, the men that feed and shake the sieve are the financial and public utility interests; Montrose Clark representing the traction crowd, Magnus Laurens representing the water-power grabbers, Robert Wanser representing the banks, Sam Corliess representing the lake shipping, Selden Dana representing the railroads, and so on. And our newspapers are mostly just their little yellow dogs, useful to help put over their deals and to fool the people. What we need, and we need it right here in the capital, is a newspaper that will tell the people, not fool them.” “Who’s ‘we’?” The Senator’s earnest gaze flickered for a moment. “I,” he said, at length. “I’m making this fight pretty near alone so far.” “What fight is that?” “The fight to get the control of the State away from the grafters and exploiters and turn it over to the people. And I’m beginning to get the support I need now.” “From the German crowd?” The Senator smiled at his caller with an expression almost affectionate. “You would n’t take to politics much worse than a duck to water. Yes; from the Germans largely. I’m a reformer, and I’m not ashamed of the name. The German-Americans are solid for reform and clean government. Government by corporations is never clean. It can’t be. It uses the kind of tools that Wymett is.” “The Guardian has offered me a job,” observed Jeremy. “Don’t touch it,” advised the other earnestly. “They ’re on the ragged edge. As I told you, Wymett is a crook. One of these days I’m going to tell the State that.” “Maybe I’ll be there to report it,” said the caller, smiling. “Maybe you’ll be there (you should work into the legislative end, by the way, for the experience); but you won’t report it. Your paper would print any attack by Wymett on me that suited its purposes. But if I proved Wymett to be a crook and a grafter--not a word in The Record. That’s the way the papers hang together.”